


Giving Up the Ghost

by YourLocalPriestess



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Angst, F/M, Halloween, Supernatural Elements, lets talk about feeeelingssssss, post-war sufferinggggg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 07:01:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12576288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YourLocalPriestess/pseuds/YourLocalPriestess
Summary: It's been many years since Shepard sacrificed himself on the Crucible, but that doesn't mean Tali is any better at dealing with it. And on the night when two holidays for the dead coincide, she gets a visitor she never expected.





	Giving Up the Ghost

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the MEFFW Drabble prompt: Halloween, and include Tali somehow. ^_^

Tali wasn't very good with sympathy. Probably from too many years shouldering it in the prejudices against her people, negative and positive. From not needing it, or wanting it. Her people didn't need sympathy. _She_ didn't need sympathy. Sympathy didn't repair faulty ships or torn suits. Sympathy didn't _do_ anything.

It had been over six years since the destruction of everything.

Well, not everything. _People_ had survived, of all species, but governments and whole systems had collapsed. The carnage that followed the death of the Reapers was no small one. Dead and lifeless Reapers had crashed in planets and space stations, leaving some unrecoverable and scaling the death toll into new, horrific heights.

It wasn't something that could be put into words, the way the world fell apart into scattered, jagged pieces. No, it wasn't something that people _wanted_ to put into words. But you could. Because everyone knew about infighting and tension, about starvation, about the sense of loss that festered with every planet recovered, about the stench of crime and debauchery that overwhelmed every corner of their universe.

Tali learned early there was no room for sympathy in war, particularly in the aftermath.

 

There were children of all species running around the Citadel tonight, celebrating a combination of Earth's Halloween and Palavan's Spirits Night. Since its re-opening a year ago, the Counsel had been doing its best to incorporate as much celebration as possible when the opportunity arose. An attempt at normalcy, however weak it was.

Tali glanced at her tool and ignored the messages from Garrus and Liara. _More sympathy_. She brushed her hair off her face and sipped her drink, sighing when she found it empty. How many was that now? Three? Six? Ten? She stood and poured herself another.

Even as the dextro-alcohol dulled her senses, she reveled in the feel of the cool glass against her finger tips, the texture of the rim as it hit her actual lips. A laugh left her when she pulled it away, empty again, and shook her head. _The war gave me this, at least_.

"Now there's something I never thought I'd see."

The words froze her in place, chasing away the warmth the alcohol had previously filled her with. _That voice..._

She turned and her glass fell to the floor, shattering, making her jump. But even the new sound didn't make the hallucination in front of her vanish. It didn't even startle him.

Will Shepard was smirking, wearing that jacket he favored with his signature white shirt and jeans, hands half buried in the front pockets.

"You're dead," she slurred, gripping the counter until her knuckles turned pale lavender.

His smirk faltered then. He walked toward her, and she flinched; unable to stop herself. But he didn't stop, not until he was standing close enough to touch. "I am."

Tali sobbed, the sound clawing its way up her chest and heaving her forward, into herself. "This is a nightmare."

"No." He shook his head and pulled her hand that rested on the counter to his face, pulled her closer in the process. "I'm here. Just, not for long."

Another sob tore through her as she her bare, uncovered fingers twitched over his skin. His _warm_ skin. Full of color and light and... _Will_. She leaned her head against his chest and his arm snaked around her waist.

"Why would you come here if you can't stay?" she breathed, fisting his shirt in her hand.

"You deserved a goodbye. A real one." His lips pressed into her forehead, real lips against her bare skin for the first time in six years. And warm, _somehow_.

"I shouldn't need one." She pulled back, glaring now, and let herself finally look at him. "You promised you'd come back."

"I know."

"You _lied_."

"I know." He wiped one of her tears away with his thumb and let it linger on her cheek. "If there was any other way, I would've come back to you."

She shook her head once. "I love you, Will. It's-" she gulped in air and looked at him again, "it's so hard without you here."

"I'm sorry." The smirk made its way back to his face and he stepped closer still. "But you're you. I know you're out there; helping, changing lives for the better, and doing a helluva better job that I would have."

"You're full of shit." But a chuckle still escaped her, before the unexplainable, the awfulness of the situation settled onto her again. "How long can you stay?"

"A few more minutes."

"Minutes?" she echoed. "That's not enough."

He was still smirking, but somehow, it lacked the humor it held moments before. "Nothing would be."

And before she could yell or sob or argue, his lips were on hers, soft and insistent and as wonderful as she remembered. She kissed him back, pulling him closer, infections be damned, and deepened it as much as he allowed. Because this was _Will_. Will's lips, Will's hands, Will's warmth. He was here and real and _hers_.

He broke it, pulling back panting and leaning his forehead against hers. "Thank you. I just... I wanted to one more time."

She tightened her fingers on the hair at the nape of his neck and swallowed. "It's okay."

"I love you, you know that?"

"Yeah," she choked out. "Yeah, I do."

"Good." He leaned in and kissed her again before pulling her against his chest. "Goodbye, Tali."

And it was like every bad romance movie Tali had ever seen, because one second his warmth was all around her, and the next there was nothing at all except her arms hanging in the air over a form that ceased to be, and she was cold.

The pain in her calf told her the shards from her glass had cut her, told her that she'd collapsed there, on the floor. But who in the hell was screaming? Sobbing? Shouting after a long dead man?

The floor was cold, just like Will.

**Author's Note:**

> Iiiiiii haven't published anything in approximately one million years, so, I'm very pumped about this fic!
> 
> Happy Halloween ghouls and gals and non-binary pals ^_^ I hope you are feeling festive and if you go out and celebrate, be safe! <3
> 
> And, of course, thank you so much for reading. You are radiant and wonderful and I am glad you exist. Any comments/kudos/what-have-yous are appreciated ^_^


End file.
